"… When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather to-day: for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?" The Holy Bible
"Many a so-called wise economist ... had not studied past history enough to know that after the greatest advance in history had culminated … the greatest panic in history must follow ... " W. D. Gann

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Thursday roundup (12-27-12)

Outlook bleak as Hollande hails 2013 'battle for jobs' (France24) French jobless claims hit nearly 15-year high in November (Reuters)

Spain's house prices to fall another 30pc as glut keeps growing: Spain's property slump will deepen for much of the next decade, and tracts of buildings along the Mediterannean coast will have to be demolished, the country's top consultants have warned. (The Telegraph)

[Japan's] Kansai Electric to Cut 500 Jobs in Next 3 Years for Cost Saving (Bloomberg)

The aim of this blog is to show (mostly from reports in mainstream respected news sources) that there is reason to believe that both the United States and the global economies remain fragile in the wake of the financial crisis of 2008 and that a number of threats that exist today could, if they worsened, bring about economic depression -- not just a minor depression, but a depression worse than the Great Depression. This blog further attempts to show that the financial crisis of 2008 was largely a result of the devastating consequences of excessive risk taking and the absence of effective regulation of such behavior. Furthermore, this blog maintains that not only have the lessons that should have been learned from this experience not been learned, but that the risks to the economy, including the persistent building up of "too big to fail" institutions, have actually increased since the crisis began. Finally this blog also brings to light, from time to time, reports of a parallel threat to economic well-being developing in the energy industry, which suggest an energy shock may be coming much closer in time than is generally imagined.